News

The BSB, as mentioned in the December edition of BSB News, has issued a consultation paper and proposed amendments to the Code in respect of barrister involvement in SRA regulated bodies. 

The consultation paper also sets out provisional views on whether barrister-only partnerships should be permitted and if so whether the cab-rank rule should apply to those barristers within the partnership. Please refer to our website www.barstandardsboard.org.uk under Standards and Guidance, Legal Services Act 2007, where we have details about the Act, answers to frequently asked questions and a
link to our consultation documents. 

If you have any queries, please email: LSA@barstandardsboard.org.uk 

A major new documentary has been broadcast on BBC 2. The Barristers was an intimate portrait which details life at the Bar from aspiring barristers through to senior silks. The four-part documentary was the result of four years of collaboration between the Bar Council, the BBC and other participants in the legal system, and followed senior practitioners, as well as students, as they work their way through Bar School to a permanent position – a tenancy or employment. 

The BBC was given unprecedented access to the courts, members of the profession, the Chairman of the Bar, Circuits, Inns and law schools. The documentary showed real life at the Bar, profiling barristers working in the public interest as part of the communities they serve. The work done by the publicly-funded Bar included family barristers helping couples and children in the wake of family breakdown, and criminal barristers defending and prosecuting those accused of crime. The Bar’s work on behalf of some of the most vulnerable members of our society was clearly set out. 

THE Annual Law Reform Lecture was delivered on Thursday 20 November, with the Attorney General, the Rt Hon Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC, delivering a speech entitled ‘Justice for All: closing the gap for fraud victims’. The speech set out the Government’s ongoing agenda against fraud – a crime which costs the country an estimated £14bn a year – and the challenges facing criminal justice.
Baroness Scotland spoke of the need for the legal profession to engage positively with ongoing reforms and to see the criminal justice system as a public service. 

Following the speech, the winners of the Law Reform Essay Competition were announced. Sponsored for the fourth consecutive year by the Bar Council Scholarship Trust, the Essay Competition was judged by the Chairman of the Law Reform Committee, Stephen Worthington QC, with input from the vice chairs, Richard Drabble QC, Alison Green and Tom Dumont. 

From 1 December 2008 the standard rate of VAT will be reduced from 17.5% to 15%. This guide sets out key points of law which barristers and their clerks will need to be aware of in order to implement the change. It also responds to typical questions which the Bar Council has been asked, in order to show how the change will impact upon the administration of a barrister’s practice. Finally, the impact of the change on computer software, which is used to produce invoices and/or fee notes within chambers, is considered. 

A book about the law governing child abuse has won the inaugural £10,000 Inner Temple book prize for outstanding legal authorship. 

The International Committee, which will be led by James Dingemans QC in 2009, has set itself an ambitious programme of activities. In relation to promoting the Bar overseas, a number of events and missions are planned, in collaboration with the Specialist Bar Associations. In April the Bar will be represented in large numbers at the Commonwealth Law Conference in Hong Kong. In addition to featuring a number of barrister speakers, a reception hosted by the Bar Council, COMBAR and Chancery Bar Association will provide an excellent opportunity to build links with other common law practitioners. This will be followed by a second business development mission to the Gulf states of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain in May. In the autumn another mission to India is on the cards. Following the successful visit by a Bombay Bar delegation in May 2008, the IC will launch a young lawyer exchange with the BBA. 

On the European agenda is a joint seminar with the German Bar in Berlin, open to all barristers in April and a seminar with the Italian Bar in the summer. 

In relation to activities strengthening the rule of law we are looking to develop joint activities with the Advocacy Training Council, mainly in African jurisdictions, combining advocacy skills training with training and support in relation to conduct and regulation of the legal profession. A joint ATC-IC mission to Mumbai is also planned. 

The Bar Standards Board has developed an equality and diversity action plan for 2009/10, which follows on from the 2007/08 action plan. 

The plan was drafted in consultation and liaison with the Director of the BSB and team leads and was approved by the BSB Board in the latter part of 2008. 

For more information about the BSB’s equality and diversity action plan for 2009, and the equality and diversity strategy, visit our website at: 

www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/about/equalityanddiversity 

The Bar Council contributed to another regular training session for Commercial Officers from selected UK embassies on 6 November. On this occasion officers from UK missions in Russia, India, China, Chile and the Middle East attended. The bar-led part of the day informed the Officers about how the Bar works and the legal services barristers can provide to overseas clients. Richard Wilmot-Smith QC and Gregory Mitchell QC spoke on international arbitration and international litigation. Feedback from the Officers was excellent and as a result of individual contacts made a number of leads are being pursued in Russia and the Middle East. 

• Subscription renewal letters sent to Self-employed Bar for payment by 1 January 2009 
• Chambers Block payment invoices sent for payment by 1 January 2009  
• Reminder letter to Head of Chambers regarding Chambers Return 2008 

Direct access provides “huge opportunities” for the Bar in light of Clementi and the Legal Services Act but is currently under-used.
About 1,200 barristers are qualified to provide direct access—clients can instruct them directly without going through a solicitor—and about 800 barristers actually take part in the scheme.